Coordinating shipping and receiving information between the customer and the supplier via conventional mail, electronic data interchange (EDI) transmission or the internet is often fraught with difficulties to both customer and supplier. A supplier typically receives purchase and shipping information from the customer by the above-mentioned methods and then re-enters the purchase information into the supplier's database. This additional step of re-entering the purchase information can lead to corruption of the original purchase and shipping information provided by the customer. Purchase request errors typically result in wrong parts being shipped, and in turn, unacceptable delays and additional expense to both customer and supplier in returning and replacing these bad shipments.
Another drawback in coordinating shipping and receiving information via conventional methods is the danger that ordered parts are shipped in response to an inquiry by the customer, but before the customer has given authorization for shipment. Such premature shipments or "ship aheads" lead to prematurely reduced inventories and often result in wasted time and expense to both customer and supplier in returning the unauthorized shipment.
A further drawback is that the packing slip supplied with each purchase order typically includes several bar codes that are scanned by the customer if equipped with an automated receiving system. Each bar code is associated with an aspect of the purchase order such as, for example, packing slip number, customer purchase order number, number of boxes, quantity of parts ordered, customer part number, manufacturer part number, shipping date, etc. If for example, nine bar codes are provided with each packing slip, it will typically take about one minute to scan-in each nine-block label. Based on an eight hour day with 480 minutes, only about 480 purchase orders can be scanned in with a single scanner which is both time consuming and costly. Further, several bar codes increases the likelihood that one or more of the bar codes provides incorrect information.
In response to the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method of coordinating shipping and receiving information that overcomes one or more of the above-described drawbacks and disadvantages of shipping and receiving systems.